Parliament candidate and eight others killed in Iraq

BAGHDAD--Attacks in Iraq killed nine people on Saturday, including a parliamentary candidate and four children, officers and medical sources said, as the country suffers its worst violence in years.

In Sharqat, north of Baghdad, gunmen shot dead Mohammed Hussein Hamid, who was running in parliamentary elections scheduled for next month on Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlak's list.

Hamid was the second parliamentary candidate to be killed this year, after gunmen shot dead Hamza al-Shammari last month.

Election candidates have been targeted in the past, with nearly 20 hopefuls killed ahead of April 2013 provincial council elections.

In Samarra, also north of Baghdad, a shooting at checkpoint killed two secondary school students and a policeman, while a roadside bomb in a village south of Sharqat killed two children.

In Khales, a roadside bomb killed army Lieutenant Colonel Abbas al-Rubaie and another soldier. And a shooting killed one person in the northern city of Mosul, one of the most dangerous parts of the country.